Latona Zhou
Latona Zhou, born Zhou Shuolü and commonly referred to as Shua she/her, is a 2019-introduced original character, Martian moon bunny, and... Joshua Li?!? She is destined to be the next Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, from Chinese folklore. She is currently attending her First Year (otherwise known as Freedom Year) at Ever After High. Character Personality Shua is a compassionate young girl, with a heart of gold, or maybe jade! She is known by many to be exuberant, always with a bunny hop spring in her step. Being around her is almost like being around a miniature sun, quite ironically. Her sunny temperament is complimented by her extreme empathy. Shua is easily affected by the people around her, mood rising and falling depending on who she's around. As she is associated with the moon, Shua is similarly reflective of the environment around her. To most, she comes off as a little idiosyncratic, quite literally out of this world. She's too eager, too curious for her own good, and often accidentally oversteps boundaries. It's never malicious (Shua and malicious are words that don't go together), nevertheless it can still make for an unpleasant situation. Shua has a desire to be "in" with the crowd, accentuated by her susceptibility to herd mentality. This subconscious desire to please others often makes her a bit of a yesman. That, and the fact that she's already easily impressionable, means that she often places the authority and knowledge of others over her own judgement. It's not that she doesn't trust her own instincts, but this is Earth! With her limited knowledge of the place, Shua latches on to earthlings because she assumes that they will be able to help her, explain to her all the mysterious workings and customs they have! It never occurs to her that they themselves could be wrong, or even worse, just not know! At least she's able to bounce back from the initial shock, resolving to solve yet another mystery herself. Though her first (and second and third) impressions might always be a little awkward, it's undeniable that her genuine heart will bleed through and tell others, "okay, maybe she's a little weird, but she's harmless." Shua's generous nature and sweet temperament allow her to be likeable, even if she has many a few quirks. She's comparable to the Wonderlandians in that regard. Her honest-to-goodness, happy-go-lucky outlook on life is a little childish. Not because the world isn't beautiful, but Shua can't see the world as anything but beautiful. To her, life is lovely, just like in the stories they're supposed to follow, the stories keeping her company for years, and never-do-wrong heroes triumph while villains get their just desserts. Her rose-tinted glasses are firmly stuck on her face, and she's unable to accept anything but black and white into her world. That doesn't mean Shua's the type to condemn villain students though (she's just a little bit afraid. Teensy weensy eensy bit because her parents have told her countless stories about villains and their kind). With her heart full of excited admiration for Earth, Shua sees people as intrinsically good, full of the humanity that softens edges, melts ice. As soon as you throw that humanity away, you can't get it back. Now that she's on Earth, Shua prefers to make the most of it and meet and talk to as many people as she can. Combine her extroverted tendencies with a love for the beautiful world she lives in, and you have celebration-planning, gift-giving Latona. She's warm, and joyous, and hospitable, and she emanates the spirit of holiday so much she's probably growing menorahs on her head and shedding pine needles. Having grown up with little company on a vast, cold moon, so close but never close enough to where the people are, Shua is just simply delighted to be at Ever After High! Everyone here is a part of a story, a pretty one of valor and romance and glory. There is no joy in a world without someone bringing joy, and Shua fully intends to be that someone. Appearance As her lineage is of aliens (very human aliens but aliens nevertheless), Shua has some oddities about her appearance. Namely, her jewel-esque hair. Shua is extremely tall for her age, at about 5'11", simply because there isn't as much gravity where she's from. She's on the chubbier side from being well-fed her entire life, with very round, pinchable cheeks. Her skintone is warm brown, and her eyes are large and round, literally resembling eclipsing suns. They are mostly black, with almost glowing maraschino cherry red crescents (hence the eclipse resemblance), with eyelashes like sun rays. It's often difficult to tell what direction she is looking in because she doesn't exactly have pupils. Shua has a bit of a sensitivity to sunlight and much prefers going out at night instead. Her skin's prone to irritation, angry red patches forming on her skin if she's not careful. She also has a hard time hearing, so she wears white hearing aids. Shua's hair is a lovely pastel green, appearing not to be hair but translucent gems shaped like hair. Think Houseki no Kuni. She wears it tied up in two loops resembling rabbit ears at the back of her head and neat bangs in the front. When let down, her hair is about shoulder length. Sprouting from her head are two white rabbit ears that don't look like actual rabbit ears. She also has a tail that doesn't look like an actual rabbit tail, resembling a cotton ball instead. Shua has the habit of pulling on her ears when nervous. She also sports silver framed glasses shaped like the iconic alien eyes, with lenses enchanted to be protective against UV rays. Interests Food Shua is a major foodie, and would cite cooking as her favorite hobby. She loves eating, she loves cooking, and she especially loves cooking for others. The only thing she does not love is washing the dishes. If Shua cooks for you, prepare to clean up a huge mess. It's a small price to pay however, because her food is magical. Literally. Her innate healing powers manifest themselves the strongest through the food that she makes, so people are bound to enjoy it. Even if you're completely healthy, the healing isn't necessarily physical. It heals your heart, like any good comfort food should, and makes life seem just a little bit better. However, Shua's food would be delicious even without her little cheat trick. She's spent ages helping her dad in the kitchen, gaining all of the knowledge passed down for god-knows-how-many millennia. Medicine While her healing meals are good and all, Shua is also very curious about actual medicine. Specifically, modern medicine, and all its high-tech advancements and processes. The Jade Rabbit cures with magic and traditional medicine. Shua learned of herbs and acupuncture, cupping and a balanced diet. She knew of more concrete, science-based methods of course, but there never seemed to be enough time to look into it properly. Now that she's on Earth for a while, Shua can fully immerse herself in the wonders of human achievement. She's thinking of maybe going to medical school before carrying out destiny. It's good to have multiple methods under your belt! Holidays Shua really really really like holidays. You get a break from school (usually... curse Headmaster Grimm for not recognizing Mid-Autumn Festival!), friends and family gather together, there's food! And gifts! Thank the Man in the Moon holidays exist because Shua really thinks people should celebrate the good in life more often. She enjoys learning about holidays from different cultures, organizing celebrations for those holidays, and generally spreading joy. Shua's generous with her family's wealth, using a long line of jade, gold, and medicine to put up decorations, prepare foods, and games, and gifts. You might mistake her for a Christmas elf, perhaps. Abilities Shua really should join track and field. She claims she still isn't used to Earth's ("awful! terrible!") gravity, but her ability to straight up rise in air says otherwise. In addition to that, she's the one to go to if perhaps your kite is stuck in a tree: as a rabbit her legs are extremely powerful. The long jump team jumps (heh) at a chance to recruit her. The next is her immunity to fire. This was a fairy gift, not a natural ability she was born with. Shua's parents had decided to have the procedure considering 1) she'd need to be immune to fire by the time destiny rolls around anyways, and 2) they really didn't need a child wandering around the fire... ful kitchen. Most prominent really, is her healing abilities. They're not terribly strong or weak, by any means, just a happy medium. She conducts the best through making food, which could just be her own imagination, but Shua likes to think it's for a reason. Like most things are! Fairytale - Yutu, or the Jade Rabbit How The Story Goes *How the Jade Rabbit got to the moon: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/Jade_Rabbit *The Jade Rabbit saving Beijing from a great plague: https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/moon-rabbit *Generally just living on the moon making elixir for Chang'e How Does Shua Fit Into it? The last Yutu was Shua's father, who, after destiny, went on to become a successful plastic surgeon. He met her mother, an entrepreneur with a recently established skincare brand famous for their jade rollers. They fell in love, got married, and had Shua. Before attending Ever After High, Shua lived with her parents and grandparents on Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons. She loves her family, and loves spending time with them. Her childhood was full of listening to her grandparents' never ending stories, being her dad's sous chef, and making thousands of lanterns to light up the lonely surface of the moon. Obviously, she had a loving childhood, but it was still so unbearably lonely. As soon as she was old enough, Shua started begging to travel with her dad and visit the world outside of Mars. She went with him to Earth whenever he had an operation (though she was obviously not allowed in the operating room) or needed to fight a plague, and went with him to visit all the previous Chang'es, turned into stars scattered across the universe. Now that she's at Ever After High, Shua wants to make the most out of her time. She's never been around so many new people for so long, and if she doesn't make any friends, it'll all be for nothing! In the future, Shua is to meet the Jade Emperor, disguised as a beggar, and throw herself into his fire. Only then will she gain all the powers of the Jade Rabbit. She will continue her father's position of delivering the elixir of immortality to every previous Chang'e, and visiting Earth to protect the people from disease. Honestly, she can't wait. Parallels *Because there are so many other similar moon rabbit folklore from other countries, Shua's family lives on Mars and its moons. It just got a little too crowded on Earth's moon. **Mars has two moons, Deimos and Phobos. Two moons -> tù moon -> rabbit moon. *She often smells like cinnamon, as a reference to how the Yutu is sometimes portrayed as standing under a cinnamon tree. **You could say that makes her a... cinnamon bun (credit to Zena). *Shua has ocular albinism. This is due to how common albino rabbits are (hh pet breeding) and how iconic that image is. Her sensitivity to the sun is a culmination of that and her being from the moon. Viewpoint on Destiny Latona Zhou is a young girl who anticipates her destiny with saucer eyes and impatient hands. Shua is an Ever After High student who doesn't want to go poof! really hyped for her destiny, easily impressionable and scared so she doesn't want to poof. royal Name Shua's full name is 周朔绿, or Zhou Shuolü. Her unofficial English name is Latona, though she mostly uses Shua. The character 周 is read zhōu. It means "cycle", relevant because of the cycle of the moon or the cycle of life and death, since the Yutu makes elixir of immortality. It shares its pinyin with 粥, meaning "porridge", since her identity is strongly tied to food. And 州, which is a word to indicate "states/prefectures/cantons/etc", since the moon sees all of Earth. 周 also somewhat resembles the character 月, aka "moon". The meaning of 朔 shuò is "the first day of the lunar month". You may notice that its right side looks familiar. That's because it's the previously mentioned 月! 绿 lǜ means "green". Jade is green, and so is grass, which the rabbit gathers for the Jade Emperor. As a name, Zhou Shuolü is incredibly similar in pronunciation to Joshua Li. It's become common that Shua is mistaken for a Joshua Li. It's also why her nickname is Shua. Yes, this is incredibly contrived. As for explaining Latona, a little bit of background knowledge is needed. Firstly, "rabbit" in Mandarin is 兔, or tù, pronounced similarly to "two". Secondly, Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. With that, we can continue. Latona is the Roman form of Leto, who was the mother to Apollo and Artemis. In some accounts she took the disguise of a wolf in order to hide from Hera. Twins you say? Two! Tù! Rabbit. Additionally, wolves are commonly connected to the moon. But wait? Roman? Wolf? Goddess? Hmm, sounds pretty FOUNDING OF ROME to me! A she-wolf raised Romulus and Remus, who were yet another set of twins. And oh, hmm what? What? Oh who's the father of these two? Ares, right? Oh sorry, I forgot, it's Roman, I meant MARS. Education Class-ic Schedule 'Freedom Year' 'Legacy Year' 'Yearbook Year' 'Fourth Year' Hextracurricular Activities Year-round Secret Santa The idea is to go around and give gifts to people. Except, she doesn't need to limit herself to Christmastime. Trivia *Shua's exact birthdate and time would be June 10th,1:58:47 PM. Why so specific? This was the launch date of the Spirit rover, of NASA's Mars Exploration Mars Rover mission. June 10th would also end up being the last day the Opportunity rover was active. **Furthermore, this makes her a Gemini. The whole twins thing... yeah. ***Originally her birthday was Jan 21st as a Capricorn, as Lunar New Year is always Aquarius central, save for that one day of Capricorniness. ***Also, Gemini season is about 9 months after Mid-Autumn Festival, if you catch my drift. ****( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) *Shua having a rose-tinted view of the world and having red eyes is a coincidence, but a very nice one. *I was going to make her a lesbian but then I realized... ''pan''sexual. *Her page was uploaded on September 13th, 2019's Mid-Autumn Festival. *Her least favorite song is EXO's "Two Moons", simply because she was excited for a song that related to her but it ended up sounding like That. **no hate to two moons though, roll like a buffalo Quotes Category:Characters Category:Chinese Category:Females Category:Shapeshifters Category:Royals Category:LGBTA+ Category:Pansexual Category:Donut's Stuff Category:Donut Hunters Category:Work in progress